Description:
Crestar Financial is the holding company for Crestar Bank, which provides an array of financial services to consumers and businesses in Virginia, the District and Maryland. Crestar has 476 branches, including 214 bank offices in its greater Washington region. Crestar also provides consumer credit, mortgage and trust investment services in selected markets nationwide through the bank and other subsidiaries.

Developments:
In one of the largest bank acquisitions in the region, Crestar last month completed its takeover of Citizens Bank branches. Crestar acquired Laurel-based Citizens Bancorp, the holding company for Citizens Bank, on Dec. 31, for about $948 million in stock. That deal made Crestar the largest banking company in the Washington area based on deposits.

Seventy-seven former Citizens Bank branches were reopened as Crestar Bank offices. Before the acquisition, Citizens Bank had 103 branches. The company offered jobs to about 1,200 Citizens Bank employees, while 400 others were laid off and given severance packages and help in finding new jobs. The company said the laid-off employees had duties that overlapped with similar jobs within Crestar.

To give itself more of a national presence, Crestar last fall said it would acquire Great Western Financial Corp.'s student lending business, including a $370 million portfolio consisting primarily of student loans in California and Florida. The acquisition represented a significant expansion of Crestar's student loan portfolio and reflected the bank's push to do more education lending nationwide.

The acquisition will bring Crestar's student loan portfolio to nearly $900 million and extend the company's education lending relationship to more than 500 colleges nationwide.